As the multiple probes into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia have spiraled onward, Republicans have increasingly moved to cast doubt on their origins, plunging the inquiries into a stew of partisan bickering. And though in recent weeks members of Congress have seemingly moved to bury the hatchet, a new report could re-ignite—and even worsen—partisan tensions. According to McClatchy D.C., the F.B.I. is investigating whether a top Russian banker with close ties to President Vladimir Putin illegally channeled money through the N.R.A. to bolster Trump’s bid for the White House. The revelation that the special prosecutor might target the gun lobby, arguably the most influential and sacrosanct faction of the Republican Party, could embolden G.O.P. lawmakers to bring a swift end to the Trump-Russia probe and hasten a Mueller ouster. (The N.R.A. did not immediately respond to the outlet’s request for comment.)

At the center of the N.R.A. probe is Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, who is well known for ties to both the N.R.A. and the Kremlin, and who was charged with money laundering in Europe. (He has denied wrongdoing.) Torshin has occasionally appeared on the periphery of the F.B.I. probe; the Russian banker was reportedly instructed to broker a meeting between Putin and Trump during the campaign, and is said to have met with Donald Trump Jr. at the N.R.A.’s 2016 convention. According to McClatchy, the F.B.I. seeks to determine whether Torshin leveraged his N.R.A. ties to funnel Russian money to the Trump campaign. (McClatchy was unable to reach Torshin for comment.)

It is unclear when Mueller’s team opened its inquiry, what stage the investigation has reached, or to what extent the F.B.I. can substantiate the money trail. But of the $55 million the N.R.A. spent on the 2016 election, a staggering $30 million was shelled out to the Trump campaign—three times the amount it spent on Mitt Romney in 2012, McClatchy reports. Two sources told the outlet that the N.R.A. may have actually spent somewhere in the ballpark of $70 million during the 2016 cycle, accounting for expenditures that private groups aren’t required to disclose. Torshin has also popped up in Congressional probes; both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, as well as Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee have sought information on the Russian banker. Citing a source familiar with the exchange, McClatchy reports that during Don Jr.’s closed-door hearing with the Senate Intelligence Committee last month, the eldest Trump son was asked about his controversial run-in with Torshin at the N.R.A. convention. __ Alan Futerfas,__ a lawyer for Trump Jr., dismissed their exchange as chitchat. “It was all gun-related small talk,” he told McClatchy.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent letters to J.D. Gordon and Sam Clovis, both senior foreign-policy advisers to the Trump campaign, requesting that they turn over any communications they had regarding or with the N.R.A., Torshin, and Paul Erickson, a conservative activist with strong ties to the gun lobby, among others. As The New York Timesreported in December, Erickson sent a May 2016 e-mail to Trump campaign adviser Rick Dearborn with the subject line “Kremlin Connection.” In the e-mail, Erickson reportedly asked Dearborn, and then Senator Jeff Sessions, for advice in setting up a meeting between Trump and Putin and sought to use the annual N.R.A. convention in Kentucky that year to make “first contact.” (Erickson could not be reached by the Times for comment.) While Erickson did not explicitly name Torshin, sources familiar with the situation who spoke to the Times said that the message appeared to refer to the Russian banker.